November 2012

11/30/2012

In 2008, SEAS-NVE, the
leading utility in Denmark, issued a bid to replace its aging meter
infrastructure, with the main goal to improve their billing system. Four years
later, 380,000 Echelon smart meters, deployed by Echelon Networked Energy
Services (NES) VAR partner Eltel Networks A/S, are fulfilling SEAS-NVE’s
original goal — and more.

The ‘more’ is that beyond using the smart meters as billing
devices, SEAS-NVE sees them as smart grid devices able to improve the monitoring
of power quality and outages, including for the utility’s more than 3,500 solar
installations, and better manage energy efficiency on its low-voltage grid.

The Echelon smart meters convey information and perform
analytics that evaluate grid health. SEAS-NVE uses the meters’ advanced features
for load profiling, power quality measurements, remote load control, remote
disconnect, and maximum power limiting. The meters communicate with a control
node — the Data Concentrator — that collects data from the meters, aggregates
it, and sends it back in bulk to Echelon’s NES System Software. The NES
management system provides infrastructure management, device management, event
management, and data collection.

The Echelon smart grid solution is delivering big benefits
to SEAS-NVE and the consumers who rely on the utility. Whether it’s identifying
voltage quality issues even before consumers experience equipment malfunctions
or failures, avoiding damages from surges, or recovering quickly from outages,
the Echelon solution is taking SEAS-NVE far beyond its modest original goals of
improving billing. But of course, the billing system has also improved.

The
data from smart meters can help utilities identify inefficiencies in energy
transmission, they can help utility customers gain more insight into and
control over energy use, and they can play a key role in reducing power
outages, which cost the U.S. up to $150 billion a year. Outage-related costs
for Sandy are still being tallied.

As Nagaraj points out: "America’s negative perception
of smart meters is causing the country to trail behind Europe, which is better
positioned to profit from the technology."

European
utilities are racing ahead of America by deploying smart meters, which are
proving to also boost customer loyalty and satisfaction. Nagaraj points
out that European utilities gain visibility into their low voltage grid – the
section between the neighborhood distribution transformer and the customer's
meter – to remotely troubleshoot expensive problems such as power quality
issues and outages.

Hurricane
Sandy has demonstrated, in a particularly dramatic and devastating way, the
need to build up our country's smart grid infrastructure. After all, the lights must
stay on.

11/19/2012

Street lights consume up to 40% of a city’s utility bill.
And, cities account for 70% of all greenhouse gas emissions. But what if
street lighting could be made more efficient so that it could reduce energy costs
and help cities cut back on their carbon footprint?

This More
Efficient Street Lighting videodemonstrates how Echelon’s Smart
Street Lighting solutions works – regardless of luminaire type —to put the
control over green, efficient street lighting directly into the hands of city
operators.

Echelon was named to the2013 Connected World (CW)
100, a prestigious list of companies honored for “demonstrating
significant market traction and pursuing game-changing technologies in
connectivity.” Focusing on the machine-to-machine and connected devices
marketplace, the CW 100 list is determined by the editorial staff
of Connected
World
and its editorial advisory board.

Published since 2003, the CW 100 has become the
definitive referenced directory highlighting the most important and influential
providers of machine-to-machine and connected devices. Companies appearing on
the CW 100 are chosen from a selection of hundreds of firms, both private and
publicly traded. The selection criteria cover three topics: sales and earnings
growth, contribution to the connected-devices space, and innovation in multiple
markets served during the past 12 months.

For Echelon, inclusion on the CW 100 is significant
because it recognizes that Echelon’s seminal contribution to machine-to-machine
communications is our LonWorks platform. The proven LonWorks standard and
technology encompass the elements necessary to design, install, monitor, and control
a network of diverse devices. This technology powers more than 100 million
connected devices across applications as diverse as building automation,
industrial automation, street lighting, transportation, and smart metering.

11/17/2012

It’s estimated
that even the most advanced countries in the world lose 6% to 8% of their energy
in the transmission and distribution network. In many high-growth economies
worldwide, it’s not uncommon for theft of service to reach 30% annually.

Finding loss on
the low-voltage grid can be challenging, especially in areas with aging
equipment and/or problems with electricity theft. But pinpointing losses and
finding their causes are crucial for achieving optimal grid efficiencies — and
for preserving utilities’ revenues.

This Revenue
Assurance videooutlines how Echelon’s Revenue Assurance application, part of our
Control Operating System (COS), identifies areas of loss on the distribution
network by tracking and comparing energy usage at distribution transformers and
at all meters attached to the transformers.

By accurately
identifying the voltage distribution along the various feeder lines, and
comparing measured loads between transformers and their attached meters, you
can see where potential losses are centered, in time to do something about it.
From there, it’s easier to determine if losses are due to a technical loss in
the environment, inefficiencies somewhere in the grid, or outright theft of
service.

11/14/2012

Interruptions in power cost the U.S. up to $180 billion and
the EU up to €150 billion annually, according to estimates published by The ABB Group in its Smart Grid Reliability Bulletin white paper. But most utilities
remain blindsided by outages or degradations in power quality (e.g. voltage
sag, swell and total harmonic distortion) and often have to scramble to find
and fix these problems and restore service to consumers.

This Outages
& Power Quality video demonstrates how Echelon’s Service Quality
Assurance application that runs on Echelon’s Edge Control Nodes (ECNs), makes
it easy for utility operators to monitor, detect, resolve, and respond to outages
and power quality issues — plus get accurate reporting on outages, so there’s no
over-reporting to regulators.

This application gives utilities greater control over their
service quality, which leads to operational cost savings as well as more
satisfied consumers.

In many
countries, the installed base of distribution transformers is aging, with less
than one percent being monitored in real-time.
Without monitoring, it is difficult to know the health of your
transformer fleet or be able to accurately predict when these assets should be
replaced. And unless someone is watching
the transformer’s cabinet door 24/7, how would you know if there was an
intrusion into the high-voltage transformer environment?

In this short Transformer
Protection video, Echelon shows how its Transformer
Protection solutions can monitor electrical parameters such as energy and
maximum current per phase, along with physical parameters relevant to the
transformer’s health, such as temperature, moisture level, and door open/close
status.

No one enjoys a
sudden power outage. Smart technology like Echelon’s could help utilities extend the useful life of transformers and avoid transformer-caused outages – saving
costs for utilities and keeping consumers safe, powered and happy.

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